Atlasia is a political/governmental simulation wherein participants take part in elections and referenda which shape the nature and laws of the nation. Atlasia operates as a federal state with five regions. The federal government has three branches: executive (President and Cabinet); legislative (Senate); and judicial (Supreme Court). Elections to the Presidency, Senate, and regional offices are held at regular intervals.

Citizens of each region can participate in the regional government either as elected representatives such as the Governor or simply as proposers of legislation at the regional level. Each region has developed their own constitutions which set out their system of government. Below is an image of each region and the states they contain.*

*Puerto Rico is a state in the Republic of Atlasia and is placed in the Southeast Region.

Parties.

Numerous parties exist in Atlasia encompassing a wide range of ideological positions. Many parties have a leadership, organise a platform and put forward and endorse candidates for elections. A brief summary of the ideology of the major parties is provided in the post below. There are also numerous Independents in Atlasia who act outside of any party structure.

Alternatively, if you do not see a Party that you find yourself on common ground with, why not start one on your own? There are no special measures one needs to go through to accomplish this, simply open a thread, hammer out an ideology and get recruiting!

Registration.

Registration requirements have changed as of the passage of the last Constitutional Amendment.

To join Atlasia, you must register in the Registration Thread located here. Simply state your name, the party you wish to register with, and preferred state of residence in that order. You may register in anyone of the 50 real life states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Here's an example:

You can register at any time; however, there are rules in place limiting rights to vote to those who have reached a total post count on the forum of 75 and have registered more than 7 days prior to the election. Additionally, your account must be at least 15 days old before joining.

You may only change your state of registration when moving to another region every 180 days but you may change your party at anytime and your state registration may be changed when moving within the same region once a month. After your initial registration, you are allowed to make one "free move" to anywhere, which does not count under the 180 days rule during the first week, however, after this you are not allowed to move for the required time.

Board Organization.

When first joining, occasionally some of you may be confused as to what the different boards are. The board structure looks something like this (as of November 1st, 2010):

Atlas Fantasy Elections is the most important board and the board you will most likely end up spending most of your time on. It covers all miscellaneous chat between citizens, who post threads such as political party headquarters, conventions, newspapers, offices for politicians, and so on. Feel free to introduce yourself here in this thread, or create a thread introducing yourself on your own.

Child Board: The Voting Booth is where Governors, Lt. Governors, party leaders, and the Secretary of Forum Affairs open voting booths for citizens to vote on important matters relating to national or regional office and ballot initiatives, and sometimes as trivial as voting on political party platform planks.

Atlas Fantasy Government is where business of the government is done. The White House, certain political offices, and court cases are all handled here, but most of all, is Senate business. It's advised you don't post here unless you're personally championing an issue, as it's rather impolite to interrupt the Senate's work.

Child Board: The Constitutional Convention board is a temporary one that debate the changing of Atlasia's system of government. It is now a defunct board.

Child Board: The Regional Governments board is a recently instituted board that allows regional governments to gather in one centralized location to do their business unencumbered by other unrelated threads. Regions centralized their legislatures and executive offices here to do their business quietly and more efficiently.

If you want to learn more about Atlasia, you can explore the Atlas Wiki (located here) or on the toolbar above via the button, which stores the Atlasian and regional Constitutions and laws, as well as information on current office holders and some details about many of the current (and past) participants in Atlasia.

Also, you should feel free to post any questions you have about Atlasia in this thread and someone should shortly be able to provide some guidance.

There is also an old Introduction to Atlasia thread, but it is horrendously outdated. You can locate it here, if you're interested.

Below are a list of the four major political parties in Atlasia, party logos (if available), party summaries (provided by the individual Chairmen), and the Wiki links to that party's page, as well as other miscellaneous information. Hopefully this will serve as an easy way for newcomers to Atlasia to learn more about those involved in the process, and have an easier time to join others like them!

Jesus Christ Party (JCP), 36 Members

Chairman: Bgwah

A coalition of liberals and economic centrists, the Jesus Christ Party is the largest party in Atlasia. Founded in 2004, it is the oldest party in Atlasia and is especially strong in the Pacific Region, although it has many members across the country. The premiere left-wing party, the JCP places special emphasis on it's social liberalism and civil libertarianism which is almost universally supported among the party rank and file.

As evidenced by the JCP's left-leaning members, the name is indeed, simply a parody.

The Regional Protection Party is the major right-wing party in Atlasia. Founded in August 2008, it was originally created for the purpose of pressing the maintenance of regional power. Since then it has grown into a big-tent conservative party, uniting all Atlasians with a right-wing bent, whether mainstream conservatives, libertarians, or populists. At the same time, the party remains true to its pro-region roots, and will gladly welcome members of any ideology who believe in the importance of maintaining and working to strengthen the institutions of regional governance.

The Populares are the party of the people, a pragmatic party advocating efficient and effective government. Our party aims to make Atlasia great again by pushing policies that move us forward as a nation by freeing markets and ensuring that all Atlasians are given the opportunity to succeed. We welcome anyone who believes in maximum individual liberty, efficient government, and a better Atlasia.

I encourage all Party Chairmen to contact me with summaries (100 words or less) for their political parties, and for new parties with over five members to contact me via Personal Message for a spot on the list. Parties with no Chairman will not be included on the list.

June 8 Edit: I updated the main introduction post with links to the Constitution and all regional constitutions, the officeholders list, a link to the Statute, reorganized the layout a bit, and updated party member numbers in accordance with the Department of Forum Affairs.

July 23 Edit: Updated numbers according to the Department of Forum Affairs and removed the Horse party from the list. RPP logo added since Swedish's logo is the apparent winner in the vote that was held.

August 26 Edit: Updated the registration requirements to meet the Intelligent Voting Amendment.

August 27 Edit: Updated party member numbers and the new chairman of the RPP.

June 8 Edit: I updated the main introduction post with links to the Constitution and all regional constitutions, the officeholders list, a link to the Statute, reorganized the layout a bit, and updated party member numbers in accordance with the Department of Forum Affairs.

July 23 Edit: Updated numbers according to the Department of Forum Affairs and removed the Horse party from the list. RPP logo added since Swedish's logo is the apparent winner in the vote that was held.

August 26 Edit: Updated the registration requirements to meet the Intelligent Voting Amendment.

June 8 Edit: I updated the main introduction post with links to the Constitution and all regional constitutions, the officeholders list, a link to the Statute, reorganized the layout a bit, and updated party member numbers in accordance with the Department of Forum Affairs.

July 23 Edit: Updated numbers according to the Department of Forum Affairs and removed the Horse party from the list. RPP logo added since Swedish's logo is the apparent winner in the vote that was held.

August 26 Edit: Updated the registration requirements to meet the Intelligent Voting Amendment.

August 27 Edit: Updated party member numbers and the new chairman of the RPP.